A couple of weeks ago I was feeling buried by commitments at work and dealing with some things in my personal life. Then we went to visit some friends out of town which lead to missing a couple of workouts and eating less healthier than usual. This happens to all of us. Things come up that take us out of our usual routines and often lead to feeling guilty.
There are two ways that I could’ve responded to this. The first way is that I could beat myself up which might lead to even more unhealthy eating, leading me to feeling less like working out, making me less productive at work and more crabby at home. The second way would be to acknowledge that setbacks happen to everyone and regain my focus on what’s important to me, which I did.
Once we got home on Sunday (post stopping for ice cream), I did a full review of my week and planned the week to come, including creating some challenging, but obtainable goals. On the Monday I got up, made my protein shake and got on the treadmill. Throughout the week I planned my days well and got in my workouts and other activities such as playing HORSE with my daughter using our recently installed basketball hoop. I ate healthier and was diligent about drinking enough water. In other words, I got back on my path.
Really, getting off course happens to everyone. The trick is to having things in your life that keep you healthy, happy, and moving toward your goals so that when you need to find your way back or make a course correction, you have the map that will get you there. And remember, and this is something that I had to remind myself of a couple of weeks ago, you can’t take care of everything else in your life that you want to or have to get done if you don’t take care of yourself.
Photograph courtesy of Henry Burrows under a CC-BY-SA license.
